How Can Marketing CD or DVD Salesletters Explode Your Sales?

People generally wouldn't even consider reading 90 minutes of sales copy but they will listen to it or better yet, watch it. If you send someone a 16 page sales letter, they may read it IF you've done an excellent job of writing it but most will just skim over the main points. A CD or DVD on the other hand, has a higher perceived value and is more likely to be watched.

With Video becoming so powerful both online and offline, you can take your sales presentation to a whole new level and make a lasting impression on your new prospective clients.

Which do you think would make a better impact, a printed sales pitch talking about your product or a video that shows a demonstration of the product? What it is, how it works, how to use it. And, what if you added testimonials to the video? Instead of a bunch of written testimonials from faceless people, your new prospect can see the reactions on their faces and the true excitement they have about your product or service.

So let's talk about a few key things that you can use in your CD or DVD Salesletter that will really make an impact on your prospects.

1. A Good Introduction -
Make your prospects connect with you and the leader of your company. If you are the owner of the company, you should do a short introduction video with an overview of who you are, why you started the company and what your vision is for you and your customers. Help them make a connection with you. This will help them feel like they know you and this will help them trust you even more.

Remember, people buy from people that they know, like and trust. Even if this isn't professionally done video, just be genuine and your prospects will feel more at ease with you and your company.

2. Demonstrate The Product -
Nothing can sell a product or service better than seeing it in action. Show the prospect how the product works. How does it save them time? How does it save them money? How does it make their family happier? Show the step by step process. A real demonstration of the product will really give them the nuts and bolts of your product or service. You can tell people about your product and what it can do but if you show them, you'll see the WOW in their eyes and really make a lasting impression.

If you can show a sample of another customer of yours using your product, that's even better. If your prospect sees another person “just like them” using your product easily and having a good time doing it, you've made your sale even easier. One of the biggest hold backs many people have with buying a product is the fear of not knowing how to use it correctly. Set their mind at ease and show your other customers or clients using the same product with a big smile on their faces.

3. Be Sure To Include Happy Customer Testimonials
- No one can sell your product better than a happy, excited existing customer. You should be using testimonials on all of your marketing no matter what it is. Video is no different and is even more powerful that anything else out there. Video not only says what your happy customers are thinking already but your prospects can see the excitement in their expressions. It puts a real face to a name and adds credibility to your testimonials. The more excited your customers are, the more believable they will be. No matter how good the testimonial is, you'll never get the same impact from a text only testimonial as you would from a video with your customer talking about how great your product really is.

The great thing about a CD or DVD salesletter is that you don't have to spend a fortune to create them. If it's in your budget, I would recommend hiring a professional but if you don't have a budget for it, you can create your own CD or DVD with software you might already have on your computer and a basic camera that shoots video or an inexpensive camcorder like a Flip Video.

Cameras and Video editing software have come down on price so much that you can could start creating your own DVD salesletter for under $200 for everything anymore.

Don't forget that you can also use the same videos you created for your CD or DVD on your website too. Adding Video to your website can make a huge impression on your prospects and do most of the selling for you. You could have them learn about your product, watch a demonstration video and watch a ton of testimonials... All before you even talk to them!

You don't have to have a big budget or a big fancy Video Production team to make use of video on your CD or DVD salesletter to really make an impact on your new prospects and impress them with your products and services. Your CD or DVD salesletter is sure to make a big impact on your prospects and make your job easier when it comes to selling your product to them. Your CD or DVD salesletter could easily be the most productive piece of your marketing mix.

Are You Using Contests To Add Buzz To Your Marketing Mix?

Contests are a great way to add buzz to any marketing you do for your business. You can use contests to boost your marketing efforts for both getting new prospects or clients and also for adding new buzz and promoting to existing clients. Contests are a proven and very effective way to get leads and generate sales for any business.

Let's look at a few great examples of ideas to use contests in your marketing for both lead generation and also for client promotions and marketing buzz.

If you are looking to use contests as a lead generation tool in your marketing mix, here are 3 ideas to get you going.

The Trade Show Fishbowl
You've seen them before, the fishbowl or box with a sign to drop your business card in for a drawing.
This is a great way to collect leads for your business. You could offer a free dinner for two to a local restaurant, movie tickets, or even better, a product that you offer for free. Let's say, if you are a carpet cleaner, you could offer a free cleaning of the winner's living room.

The kicker here isn't just to collect the names but to give a Second Prize award to everyone that didn't win the first prize drawing. Make it a big deal. Send out an email or better yet, physical letter announcement congratulating the winner to EVERYONE on the list.

Then, you can include a Second Place prize to all the other names on the list that is a nice discount on your products or services. Make it something that looks like a prize though. Include a certificate that id designed nice to look like a real prize and not just a typical coupon of filler. Make the discount something significant. 24-50% off if you can do it. You could offer a free upgrade from your basic package to the deluxe option here also. This is a great way to make the person that receives the letter feel more special and excited about winning the prize.

Guess The Number
Have you seen the jellybean jars that some businesses use at trade shows or events? This is also a great contest you can run at an event or even in your retail store or shop. Find a number that fits in with your business and is a large number that you can have added up in jellybeans. This could be the number of dollars your company has saved your customers of the last year, the number if customers you have, number of people that have downloaded your life changing report, etc. Be creative with this and try to use something that will not only mean more to the customer but also impresses prospective customers by the shear number.

Then, get a jar to hold enough jelly beans for that number and fill up the jar with that number of jelly beans. Seal it up and have people at your event fill out a form guessing the number of jelly beans in the jar. Be sure to have them fill out a complete form containing their full contact information.

Once the event is over, find the person that guessed closest to the correct number and announce them as the winner with their guess and the correct number in the jar. Be sure to include a sales letter explaining the significance of the number of jelly beans and why that is important to them as customers or potential customers.

Again, include a Runner Up prize with the announcement to everyone else that entered with the same type of special offer that you would with the fishbowl. Many of the people that didn't win will still use they're Runner Up certificate as they still will like that they won something and if they were in need of your services already, they'll be excited about the offer.

Best Of the Best Contests
If you run a Business To Business company and your products or services save your clients time, money, etc, you can run a Best Of The Best Contest for your existing clients and not only promote the use of your product and other products they might not have yet, but also built a ton of case studies and testimonials on how great your product is. Send out an announcement to your customers that you are running a Best Of the Best contest and that you are looking for the customer that has had the biggest effect by using your products or services.

Set some guidelines for the contest. If could be an essay, a journal of how they use the product and including before and after results.

If you have enough entries, you can even narrow it down to the top 3-5 entries and then have your other clients vote on the finalize from there. You not only get great testimonials and case studies from the entries but also get other users of your product or service to think about additional ways to use your product and how they can get the same great results that they weren't getting before without your product.

Using contests in your marketing mix is a great way to promote your business to both existing customers and clients but also to help to promote your business and make it more fun for prospective customers also. This can help build a new list of prospects and even fire up your existing customers to help talk about the great results that have had from your products and services. Great testimonials, new clients from trade shows, and great customer case studies from raving fans are just a couple of things you can get from using contests as just piece of your marketing mix.